'TUF' coaching slot fuels Cat Zingano; potential coaching staff already chosen

Cat Zingano slept through an announcement that the winner of her next fight will coach “The Ultimate Fighter 18? because she was recuperating from training.

Usually, she would watch the UFC fights and make picks like everyone else. But for her fights, and particularly for her next one against Miesha Tate (13-3 MMA, 0-0 UFC), Zingano (7-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) wanted to deliver the kind of performance that compelled UFC President Dana White to give her a title shot.

“I really focused on myself and having my day-by-day routine go by, so if that means I have to sleep through one (event) to get rest to go kick ass the next day, then that’s the sacrifice I make,” she today told MMAjunkie.com Radio (www.mmajunkie.com/radio).

As it turned out, she didn’t need to do any lobbying. She woke up to a text message from White asking her to call. She thought a friend was playing a prank, but she dialed anyway.

“Hey, did you hear the good news?” White shouted over the din of the house sound system at Montreal’s Bell Centre, where the preliminary card of this past weekend’s UFC 158 event was underway.

“I was just like, ‘Wow. Wow. That’s sweet. Wow,’” Zingano said after he caught her up. “And he’s like, ‘Are you happy?’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah. Wow. Wow.’”

Feelings of wonder and surreality have now shifted for Zingano, who said she hit the gym this week with a passion like never before. Motivation isn’t an unfamiliar task; she leads a women’s MMA fitness bootcamp. The harder job is keeping her mind from drifting into the future.

“Who wouldn’t want to coach ‘The Ultimate Fighter?’” she asked. “But right now, I’m starting at Miesha, and none of that is even possible if I don’t get past this fight. It’s easier to talk about it April 14 than it is now.”

April 13 is the all-important day for Zingano and Tate, who meet on the FX-televised main card of The Ultimate Fighter 17 Finale, which takes place at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The winner of the fight is expected to meet women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey at the conclusion of their “TUF 18? coaching duties.

“The task at hand is to beat Miesha,” Zingano said. “The motivation I get from knowing that that is something that lies behind winning this fight, it’s definitely made me pick things up. I want that. I really do. So I’ve been hitting these days hard.”

Truth be told, she has put a little thought into the future. She knows whom she’d pick to help her coach on the reality show: striking coach Mark Beecher, who’s previously served on the reality show; Mauricio Zingano, who’s not only a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, but her husband; Leister Bowling, another ‘TUF’ coaching vet; and Loren Landow, a renowned strength and conditioning coach.

“All these men are incredible,” she said. “They’re a part of my arsenal now. They teach me a lot.”

But they also are the ones telling her that she won’t get to fight Rousey if she loses focus. Backstage at the UFC 157 press conference, she saw her potential future when she met the champ, who was getting her game face on and not in the mood to chat.

“She looked a little miserable,” Zingano said of Rousey. “We didn’t really have any interaction, and I prefer it that way because I’m not here to make friends. Ronda has what I want, and Miesha is in the way of what I want, so I’m definitely looking for that title. I feel like I was meant to do this.”

Zingano, however, said an interview she and Tate gave following Rousey’s victory over challenger Liz Carmouche wasn’t exactly a reflection of her true feelings. She felt she was baited into saying that Rousey’s performance wasn’t impressive.

“I felt like I was set up for disaster on that one,” she said. “I was impressed by her performance. They put me right next to the person I was going to fight, and there was a little bit of nervousness there, sitting there talking about a game plan and what I thought about that fight. Because I’m not thinking about that fight. I’m thinking about my fight. So I totally think Ronda and Liz had a great fight. However, I’m still not thinking about their fight. I want to keep the momentum going.

“They had an exciting performance that people were happy with. That was the wish I had the entire time. I’m not saying that I’m not impressed. It’s just that Ronda has had an armbar in every fight that she’s had. [I was asked] if she’s a one-trick pony, and by definition, if you finish every fight with the exact same move, what else would you say to that? I finish fights too, and I’ve never finished fights the same way twice. It’s not that I’m not impressed. It’s just that if I’m going to put myself in the position on where I stand on the result of their fight, I have a bigger arsenal that. She got an armbar down. I’m confident in a lot more things.”

Next month, Zingano gets a chance to put those things on display as she fights Tate, whose grappling skills have earned her six career submission wins. So it’s possible her armbar defense could be put to the test long before she gets a chance to fight Rousey.

Zingano, though, wants to meet challenges head-on.

For more on The Ultimate Fighter 17 Finale, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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